Joyce grounds Qantas fleet

Australia's aviation industry is in chaos after Qantas grounded its entire domestic and international fleet indefinitely, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and forcing the federal government to intervene to avert further turmoil.

The Spring Racing Carnival could be devastated ahead of the Melbourne Cup, with all Qantas flights into the capital cancelled without notice yesterday afternoon.

In total 108 aircraft will be grounded in 22 airports around the world. The airline's unprecedented action will affect 68,000 passengers a day - a prospect the tourism industry has dubbed as ''Armageddon''.

Those passengers reportedly affected included 17 leaders who were booked to fly out on Qantas after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting closed yesterday.

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Fair Work Australia held an urgent hearing in Melbourne last night after the Gillard government took the extraordinary step of seeking an emergency order forcing an immediate end to the long-running dispute.

The industrial umpire can order the suspension or termination of industrial action by both the airline and the unions if it is satisfied that it would threaten ''personal safety, or the health, or welfare of the population … or cause significant damage to the Australian economy''.

Qantas fleet grounded

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced on Saturday that all Qantas flights, both domestic and international are grounded. Joyce has blamed ongoing industrial action as the reason behind the grounding and confirmed that all workers involved in the dispute will be locked out of the company from Monday night. This selection of photos from the past week charts the protests and tensions in the lead-up to the lock out of staff and suspension of flights.

Any such order could put Qantas flights back in the air from as early as today.

Any such order would also force Qantas to call off lock-outs planned from tomorrow night of 7000 employees covered by the industrial agreements in dispute.

Those employees would not be paid during the lock-out. A Qantas spokesman said the airline's executive and its board also would not be paid.

A furious federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese last night accused the airline of ''a breach of faith with the government''. ''The Government is extremely concerned for the future of Qantas, its workforce and also the travelling public.

''We will at all times be making sure that the travelling public's interests are upheld in this.''

Qantas chief Alan Joyce yesterday said he was forced to ground flights immediately to stop industrial action from ''killing Qantas slowly''. He said he had no choice but to act after the Australian and International Pilots Association, the Transport Workers Union and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association declared plans to escalate industrial action over working conditions and job security.

Further strikes after an eight-month union campaign would force Qantas to shut down its business ''part by part'', after suffering weekly losses of $15 million and with more than 70,000 passengers affected, he said.

''They are trashing our strategy and our brand … They are deliberately destabilising the company and there is no end in sight.''

Qantas group airlines JetStar and QantasLink are not affected by the grounding.

''This is nothing short of crazy behaviour,'' he said. ''No one predicted this - because no one

thought Alan Joyce was completely mad. This is a stunning overreaction. It is straight-up blackmail.''

Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon slammed the Qantas board's approval of a 71 per cent pay rise for Mr Joyce at the annual general meeting on Friday, while failing to warn shareholders of its ''premeditated'' plans to ground planes.

Aviation expert Clive Dorman said the ramifications for Australia's aviation industry could be as great as the collapse of Ansett in 2001. ''This will have a devastating effect on the industry,'' he said.

''The Spring Racing Carnival is going to be devastated. Virgin Blue can't suddenly pull 30,000 airline seats out of its arse. There is going to be a massive premium on seats.''

The nation's peak tourism group, the Tourism and Transport Forum, said 2011 would go down as Australian industry's ''annus horribilis''.

''As we lead into the peak season of Christmas this is a catastrophic event which will mean the livelihoods of many tourism operators are in jeopardy,'' said chief executive John Lee.

The industrial dispute had already damaged the tourism sector by reducing consumer confidence and prompting people to defer travel plans, he said. ''We are already seeing a drop-off in forward bookings which will only get worse.

''The tourism industry is faced with potential Armageddon if this goes all the way into Christmas.''

Virgin Australia announced it would look to put on additional services and offer special ''stranded passenger'' fares for Qantas customers who are stuck at a port away from home.

AirAsia said it would offer special rescue fares of $150 per sector for outbound, long haul flights.

Qantas said it would provide accommodation and alternative flights for passengers who were stranded mid-journey and unable to get home. Refunds and ticket transfers were available to passengers on cancelled flights.

Related Coverage

30 Oct
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced on Saturday that all Qantas flights, both domestic and international are grounded. Joyce has blamed ongoing industrial action as the reason behind the grounding and confirmed that all workers involved in the dispute will be locked out of the company from Monday night. This selection of photos from the past week charts the protests and tensions in the lead-up to the lock out of staff and suspension of flights.

30 Oct
A chill wind blew across the union movement last night when Alan Joyce and the board of Qantas took the unprecedented step of grounding flights indefinitely and locking out the many thousands of staff who are currently negotiating awards.